Nigel Slater: Shredded treat

'It's cabbage on toast,' she says. I insist it is actually bright, earthy greens, shredded and blanched then piled with sizzling nut-brown garlic on to flour-encrusted toasted ciabatta drenched with estate-bottled Manni olive oil. The oil has settled in deep, bottle-green pools on the leaves' emerald green and drizzled through the holes in the chargrilled bread. As a snack, or a light lunch, it is perfect for a crisp, white-sky morning cold enough to see your breath. The robust flavour of the brassicas sits perfectly with the pepperiness of the olive oil, and the garlic sings with deep, nutty warmth.

I could have used spring greens, the pointy cabbages that look like Pierrot's cap; the exquisitely leafy cima di rapa that has just arrived from Italy, or some of the outer leaves of the winter cabbage that came in the organic box from Devon. The crisp toast with the oil sitting in pools on its toasted surface takes the bitter edge off the strident, almost mineral flavours of the greens, and would have worked beautifully with sprout tops, too - the vegetable du jour for those who haven't eaten out this month.

An invaluable supper dish this week has been the broth I made with yellow miso, so much less salty than the darker brown type, and that I chucked together the other night. It is little more than boiling water poured over the miso paste, with curly Herefordshire kale, shreds of fresh ginger and enough ripe chilli to make our noses run. (Luckily, our lips were numb from the cold, so no one really noticed it.) The golden, salty depths of the broth got a hit of fresh lime that made the whole bowlful sing and shout.

Citrus of any sort, but especially orange and lime, lifts up the unsophisticated tone of the stronger-tasting members of the cabbage family to a fresh level. This week, the house groaning with the results of my over-excited brassica buying, has seen a very smart shredded, raw white cabbage salad with slices of pink grapefruit, walnut oil and toasted almonds; a dish of balanced sprout tops with finely grated nutmeg and orange zest to accompany some grilled gammon steaks, and perhaps most exciting of all a sauce for cavolo nero made from lemon juice, oil and grated Parmesan whisked up like French dressing and tossed with sprouts straight from the pan.

Cavolo nero, like long, wrinkly blue-black rabbit's ears with the tips bent over, are the most sweet and earthy leaves of all, and often known here, somewhat unromantically, as black cabbage. Yes, you can boil them, drain and toss them in softened butter or some of Tuscany's finest, but they respond to slower cooking, too. Try them briefly boiled, drained and reheated with olive oil and garlic. I don't, as one is often instructed, remove the central stem, but then I have always been happy to indulge in a bit of roughage.

Cima di rapa is one of the most beautiful of all the greens family - www.seedsofitaly.com has no fewer than six varieties of this vegetable, which tastes somewhere between broccoli and sprouting turnips tops. A bag of seed has already gone into my virtual shopping basket this year, along with some pink-tinted cabbage for my first attempt at growing my own. Used in Italy with orecchiette, the pasta that looks like mouse's ears, you may come across it at specialist shops. I don't really get the greens and pasta thing very much myself and prefer it simply steamed with olive oil and lemon.

All the leafy brassicas - green and purple kale, all the cabbages, purple sprouting - are thoroughly life-enriching when lightly cooked and piled on to generous slices of olive-oily Italian toast. The bright green of the slightly undercooked leaves and the deep, deep green oil fill you not just with health but hope and happiness, too. 'Cabbage on toast' indeed.

Toasted ciabatta with cabbage and garlic

Any leafy brassica is fine - cavolo nero, savoy cabbage or kale. The trick is in the timing: toast, cabbage and garlic all have to be ready at the same time. I use a peppery oil with this, something with a hot bite that will work with the earthiness of the greens. What really matters is that it is served piping hot, while the greens are still emerald green.

For each person:

2 handfuls of shredded cabbage

2 plump cloves of garlic

2 slices of ciabatta

your favourite olive oil

Get a pan of water on to boil. Salt it lightly. Wash the cabbage leaves thoroughly, roll them up tightly and slice into thin shreds - strips the width of fettucine seem to be about right.

Peel the garlic and chop it finely. Drop the cabbage into the boiling water and leave for a minute or two until the colours are bright and clear and the cabbage has softened but has plenty of crunch to it. Quickly drain.

While the cabbage is cooking, toast the bread on both sides. Warm a little oil ...#8594; ...#8592; in a shallow pan, add the garlic and cook quickly over a high heat till crisp and deep nutty gold.

Generously pour olive oil over the toast, grind over a little salt and black pepper, put the cooked cabbage into the pan with the garlic for a few seconds to reheat, then pile on top of the hot toast. Eat immediately, pouring over a little more oil if you wish and adding a squeeze of lemon at the table.

Kale and miso soup

I love the deep, salty, savoury taste of miso broth, and find there are few more eternally useful things to have in the fridge than a tub of miso. At this point in the year I will include any sort of greens, shredded and blanched, sometimes with ginger, other times with garlic and whatever herbs are to hand.

For each person:

a handful of kale leaves

a knob of ginger, about 20g

1 hot red chilli

1 heaped tbsp yellow miso

500mls water, to boil

a few coriander leaves

1 lime

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Dunk the kale leaves into the water, lifting them out as soon as they have turned bright green and the stems are tender - about 2 minutes. Drain. Peel the ginger and cut into thin strips the size of matchsticks. Dunk them briefly into the boiling water then drain. Pour away the water and put the kettle on.

Slice the chilli, remove the seeds then chop the flesh very finely. Put the miso into a jug and pour over the boiling water. Pour into warm bowls and add the cooked cabbage, the ginger, chillies, coriander leaves and a good squeeze of lime.